Transnational communities have become the focus of
considerable attention in recent years as one of several manifestations of
globalisation (see, for example, Castles and Davidson 2000, Cohen 1997,
Spoonley 2001, van Heer 1998). UNESCO’s Management of Social
Transformations (MOST) programme has picked up the theme of
transnationalism as a dimension of globalisation in several of its major
international research networks. The Asia-Pacific Migration Research
Network (APMRN), with its focus on processes of change in multicultural
and multi-ethnic societies, has been encouraging research on four themes
associated with international migration and social transformation (Bedford
2001). These are: the issue of migration and identity, the roles of
migrant entrepreneurs and ‘business migration’, illegal migration, and the
implications of migration for environmental transformation. This volume
contains papers presented at a UNESCO-sponsored workshop exploring aspects
of the latter theme.

Issues of migration and identity for Pacific peoples have
been explored in a collection of essays entitled Tangata O Te Moana
Nui: The Evolving Identities of Pacific Peoples in Aotearoa/New
Zealand (Macpherson et al. 2001a). As the editors note in their
introduction, this book:

… is about the diverse identities that
result from the various experiences of being a Pacific person in the many
places in which Pacific people are now found. It avoids the essentialising
of elements of ‘culture’ and the suggestion that those who do not share
all of these suffer from some degree of deprivation. Instead it celebrates
this increasing diversity in given cultural identities as a demonstration
of the creative responses to the increasingly diverse circumstances in
which Pacific peoples have chosen to settle and live (Macpherson et al.
2001b: 13-14).

The papers commissioned for and presented at the
UNESCO-sponsored workshop, "Flowers, fale, Fanua and fa’a Polynesia" are
all about ‘diverse identities that result from the various experiences of
being a Pacific person in the many places in which Pacific people are now
found’. A distinctive focus for the papers was the implications of
migration for environmental transformation in both the island homes and
the ‘homes abroad’ for Pacific peoples. Following Hau’ofa’s (1998:
401-402) generous definition of ‘Pacific peoples’, the workshop included
presentations on New Zealand’s Maori and pakeha (European descent) peoples
as well as Samoans, Tongans and Cook Island Maori. For the latter groups,
the implications of migration for environmental transformation were
examined in both their island homes as well as in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

A decision was taken to focus attention on the domestic
environment — houses, flower and vegetable gardens, and the land used for
residential purposes. This was because the literature on transnational
communities has tended to highlight cultural, economic, political and
social dimensions of their structures and dynamics. Little attention has
been given to the way in which domestic environments reflect ‘creative
responses to the increasingly diverse circumstances in which Pacific
peoples have chosen to live and settle’ (Macpherson et al. 2001b: 14).
Yvonne Underhill-Sem, the co-ordinator of the workshop and of most of the
research reported in the following papers, sums up the local context for
the particular focus on domestic environments in her summary of the
rationale for the study. She observes in the second part of the
Introductions that the project examines aspects of place that have
been taken-for-granted in Pacific Islands identities and economies — the
domestic environments associated with residences and their associated
flower and vegetable gardens in both island homes and homes abroad.

In essence the project represents a partial response to a
challenge issued by Findlay and Hoy (2000), in a special issue of
Applied Geography, for researchers with an interest in migration
and social transformation to examine environmental issues and health
problems amongst transnational communities. They point out that
"Globalising tendencies suggest greater freedoms for some ethnic groups,
not only in terms of their residential geographies, but more significantly
in the flexibility of their negotiated identities" (Findlay and Hoy 2000:
212). Quoting Zelinsky and Lee (1998: 294) they go on to observe that:

... a substantial portion of those
populations that have been crossing and re-crossing international
boundaries … are capable of retaining or reinventing much of the ancestral
culture, while devising original amalgams of their cultural heritage with
what they find awaiting them in their new, perhaps provisional,
abodes.

These papers all demonstrate that ‘ancestral cultures’
are being reinvented in different ways in the residential environments of
both ‘old’ and ‘new’ abodes for Pacific peoples who have a long history of
‘crossing and re-crossing international borders’. As Epeli Hau’ofa (1994:
156) reminds us in his evocative essay ‘Our Sea of Islands’:

… much of the welfare of ordinary people of
Oceania depends on informal movement along ancient routes drawn in
bloodlines invisible to the enforcers of the laws of confinement and
regulated mobility … [Pacific peoples] are once again enlarging their
world, establishing new resource bases and expanding networks for
circulation.

There is nothing new about transoceanic mobility amongst
Pacific peoples. The Maori population of Aotearoa is descended from
Polynesian seafarers, and the more recent waves of immigrants from the
eastern Pacific have come to a land inhabited by their ancestral kin.

The physical environment of Aotearoa/New Zealand is very
different from that found in their island homes. However, the knowledge
that a Polynesian people has successfully lived in this different
environment for over 1000 years has, no doubt, facilitated the adaptation
process. As the papers by Ieti Lima and Robyn Longhurst in this volume
show, some familiar signs of the tropical Pacific can be found in the
gardens of Maori, pakeha and Pacific Island New Zealanders, especially
those living in the North Island.

Flowers, fale, Fanua and fa’a Polynesia

The workshop organised by Underhill-Sem to report on the
initial findings of the research into migration and the transformation of
domestic environments in Pacific communities in the islands and abroad
explored three key themes in the islands, and three in Aotearoa/New
Zealand. The papers by Ruta Fiti-Sinclair, Asenati Liki and Yvonne
Underhill-Sem all examined aspects of the changing roles of flowers in
Samoan and Cook Island society. Flowers have always played an important
role in the social life and identities of Polynesians but, as
Fiti-Sinclair shows, there were some significant transformations in the
ways flowers were used for personal decoration as well as in ceremonies
and buildings following the establishment of Christianity in Samoa and
other parts of the Pacific.

Fiti-Sinclair and Underhill-Sem both stress the
importance of flowers in the construction of contemporary Pacific
identities; part of the process of post-colonialism in Polynesia has been
re-establishing the place of flowers in cultural and social life. This
does not mean a return to practices of the past, however. As Underhill-Sem
argues, the flowers and combinations of plant materials used for
ceremonial and decorative purposes in the 1990s are often different from
those used in the past reflecting the poly-ethnic character of
contemporary Polynesian communities.

Liki’s study of contemporary responses to commercial
flower production opportunities in Samoa indicates that there is a new
dimension to this post-colonial revival of interest in and the
significance of flowers in Samoan life. Flowers are also a commercial
proposition and a differentiated market in the production and consumption
of flowers in Samoa is emerging. Most of the flowers for sale are still
grown in domestic garden situations rather than nurseries of the kind that
Longhurst discusses in her examination of sub-tropical gardening in New
Zealand.

Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop and Wendy Cowling examine
developments with regard to Fanua and fale respectively in
Samoa and Tonga. Fairbairn-Dunlop develops an argument about the trend
towards acquisition of a quarter acre section of freehold land in Samoa,
especially by migrants returning from New Zealand or Australia. The demand
for freehold land, the title to which can be held by the family without
reference to the matai (chiefs), is increasing rapidly, according
to Fairbairn-Dunlop’s research into land transactions in Apia in recent
years. This trend reflects changing perceptions of the place of land in
Samoan domestic environments, especially the domestic environments of
Samoans who have lived for many years in rental and ownership property in
New Zealand.

Cowling’s examination of trends in housing styles in
Tonga, and some of the environmental implications of the sorts of housing
that the elites especially are building, reveals some interesting tensions
within one of the most active Polynesian transnational communities. Tongan
housing has been greatly transformed by styles imported from New Zealand
especially and there is very little so called ‘traditional’ housing left
in the country. Migration has had, and continues to have, a very profound
impact on this dimension of Polynesian domestic environments. However, the
movement of ideas is not all one-way. It is not just a question of
importing overseas designs and kit-set houses into the islands. As Cluny
Macpherson (1997) shows in a fascinating analysis of the way Samoans
adjusted to urban living in New Zealand, the humble garage gained a whole
range of new uses and meanings as its potential was realised for
overcoming major space restraints in the small three-bedroomed State
houses in Auckland.

Lima reports on an exploratory study of gardening amongst
Samoans resident in Auckland. His case studies are drawn from several
suburbs and he reveals considerable diversity in both the enthusiasm for
and the realisation of domestic gardens in urban residential spaces. One
of the major constraints facing would-be Samoan gardeners is the fact that
the majority of Pacific peoples in Auckland still rent their houses. They
are reluctant to invest much time or money in establishing gardens in
places that are not their own. Where people have established gardens, Lima
finds evidence of both considerable continuity in the choices of plants
and the roles of flowers especially in Samoan social and cultural life,
especially amongst older people. He also finds evidence of considerable
change related to the impact of local climatic conditions on plant species
as well as the impact of a wage economy on the division of labour in the
gardens.

Longhurst’s examination of domestic gardens "as texts
that raise questions about migration, entanglements of culture, and
constructions of diasporic identities" charts a brief history of colonial
gardens in New Zealand, before describing current gardening trends in
temperate New Zealand and exploring what the shift towards subtropical
gardening might mean in relation to post-colonial identities and cultural
difference. She focuses on the gardens of urban, middle class pakeha New
Zealanders, and the extent to which they are taking elements of Pacific
environments, filtering them through their own cultural experiences and
building them into a new post-colonial identity.

In the final paper, Pania Melbourne brings the
perspectives of a Maori researcher to bear on some issues that are of
critical importance to the tangata whenua of Aotearoa in the
contemporary contexts of commercialisation of indigenous plants and
knowledge about plants. There is considerable interest both within Crown
Research Institutes as well as within Maoridom in the possibilities for
commercialisation of non-domesticated indigenous plants. However, the very
different cultural values that underpin Maori society on the one hand, and
the world of commerce that dominates the political and economic life of
New Zealand’s majority pakeha population, create complex situations both
for researchers as well as for the actors seeking to test the commercial
viability of particular propositions. Melbourne talks of the interplay of
power between two different worlds, and how these worlds manage to
co-exist.

While her discussion relates to a particular situation
within Maoridom, the issues Melbourne raises about research into aspects
of the use of plants within contemporary society has wider relevance for
Pacific peoples in both their island homes and their homes abroad. The
circulation of plant materials within the transnational networks of
Pacific peoples is leading to new opportunities for domestic gardening in
both the islands and in New Zealand. There have been no substantive
studies of Pacific gardening in New Zealand cities, but it is clear from
Lima’s preliminary inquiries that the cultivation of vegetables, flowers
and a range of plants with medicinal value is an integral part of
Auckland’s established Pacific communities, reflecting cultural values
that remain important in the islands.

A final comment

Research on the implications of migration for
environmental transformation in Pacific transnational communities is still
in its early stages. However, the original research reported at the Apia
meeting, and detailed in the papers in this volume, has made it clear that
"we must radically rethink the relationships between person, community,
culture and place for all of us, not just for immigrants and ethnic
groups" (Zelinsky and Lee 1998: 294) if we are to understand better the
development of transnational communities and their implications for social
change and environmental transformation.

References

Bedford, R. 2001: A robust research/policy interface:
international migration and social transformation in the Asia-Pacific
region, in OECD Social sciences for knowledge and decision making,
OECD, Paris, 153-163.

Towards the end of the 1990s the study of population
mobility in the eastern Pacific, Polynesia, as predominantly an economic
issue has been superseded by studies which take population mobility as a
given and examine its social and cultural complexity in various locations
and using various texts (Macpherson 1999, Liki 1997). Detailed analysis of
the flows and composition of people moving into, out of and through the
countries of the eastern Pacific have shown that international migration
is significant, complex and often contradictory (see Bedford 2000 and
Connell 1977 for useful overviews). Different sorts of people are moving
between different places for different reasons and for varying lengths of
time. The cumulative effect of these complex mobility patterns
increasingly constitutes the multi-local identities of many Pacific
Islanders (Macpherson 1997, Ward 1997).

The extent to which various aspects of ‘home’ island
cultures constitute Pacific Island identity becomes an important question
in the context of globalisation (the compression of space and time in
political, economic and cultural affairs) and post-coloniality (the
politics of recognising and rejecting the cumulative impacts of colonial
intrusion). Also interesting is the extent to which the cultures of
‘metropolitan’ places constitute Pacific Island identity (Anae 1998,
Macpherson 1999, Underhill-Sem and Fitzgerald 1996).

Closely related to issues of cultural identity among
mobile Pacific peoples is the recognition of ‘the environment’ as an
essential part of Pacific Island identity and in particular the cultural
importance of land. International debates on climate change and
biodiversity have further emphasised the critical importance of Pacific
Island environments and biodiversity not only for the islands themselves
but also for global concerns.

This research project brings together issues of
population mobility and environmental transformation in an exploratory
analysis of how domestic environments are being constituted by the
multi-local identities of mobile Pacific peoples. The initial focus was on
Samoa but as the project unfolded, so too did other perspectives on the
guiding questions. In the end we have papers on Samoa, Tonga, and New
Zealand.

The initial focus on Samoa is in some ways accidental in
that this was where the principle researcher, who self-identifies as a New
Zealand Cook Islander, lived. However, perhaps because Samoans constitute
the largest group of Polynesians in New Zealand and there are now many New
Zealand-born Samoans, there have been a growing number of studies in New
Zealand which examine the complex creation of Samoan identities (Anae
1998, Macpherson 1999, Macpherson et al., 2000). This study contributes to
this analysis by examining aspects of place that have been
taken-for-granted in Pacific Islands identities and economies — the
feminine domestic activities associated with flower gardens in ‘home
islands’. This study could well have been located in the Cook Islands or
Tonga and it is hoped that it can be expanded in this direction.

Flowering identities and the domestic production

As Samoans have moved through the Pacific and beyond, so
too have ideas, fashions and money, making for an increasingly diverse
Samoa — not that it was ever as homogenous as it was thought to be.
Flowers have always been a feature of Pacific Island identity and culture
and appear in many Pacific motifs such as on Cook Island tivaevae
(quilts), contemporary art, and clothing styles. Flowers are used
extensively for church displays, greetings, meetings, funerals and
weddings. The underlying message is that flowers are an integral part of
Pacific identity and are ‘naturally’ part of Pacific environments.

Recent developments highlight some ways in which this is
changing. Artificial flowers and ‘lolly leis’ are becoming more common in
New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands. At the same time, there
has been a notable increase in the development of small businesses in
Samoa, which grow and sell flowers and plants, both native and introduced
varieties. Now in the late 1990s, palagi (European) flower displays
have an acceptable and even privileged place in these same contexts.

It is not only as part of Pacific identities within which
flower motifs emerge. The combination of climate and soil in the physical
environment provides for the growth of lush and ‘exotic’ tropical flowers.
To date, much flower production is for the local market. In the case of
Fiji this extends to the larger tourist market. However, fragrant plants
and flowers have moved, both commercially and privately, throughout the
region for many years. For example maire leaves from Mauke, in the
Cook Islands, are sold in Hawaii and tipani (frangipani) have been
air-freighted from Rarotonga, the Cook Islands to Porirua, New Zealand for
weddings.

In the context of new global trade developments, the
ability of Pacific Island floriculture businesses to flourish must be
understood in the context of complex issues arising from the Trade Related
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement vis a vis the
Convention on Biological Diversity. Already, in the Caribbean the
floriculture industry has developed in response to demands from markets
outside the region, which has altered the landscape in the Caribbean as
well as set up another island industry too closely tied to non-Caribbean
commercial interests.

Domestic gardens are built and developed on the basis of
the multiple needs of owners and according to diverse ideas about design.
In this way, gardens in Samoa can be examined for the ways in which they
constitute and in turn are constituted by the people who design and build
them. Flower gardens are one area of the domestic environment, which is
clearly in the domain of women. It is predominantly women who are involved
in flower gardens or the planting and tendering of ornamental and fragrant
plants. Among other things it is widely thought that tending domestic
flower gardens enables women to stay close to home where they remain under
surveillance and can still attend to the care of children, the aged and
the sick.

There is also however an emotive aspect to tending
domestic gardens: pride in the extent, tidiness and diversity of gardens;
pleasure in watching gardens develop; delight in unexpected growth;
satisfaction in sharing the garden and what it delivers. The pleasure of
being able to use one’s flowers for gifting to other people, for church
decorations and other life cycle events like weddings and funerals, tends
to be underestimated. Over the last decade in Samoa however, there appears
to have been an appreciable change in the way domestic flowers are being
used in Samoa. Aspects of competition and commercialism are becoming
evident. Neighbours and family members are less keen to share particular
plants and cut flowers are now being sold for different events. This
exploratory research began to examine these changes by asking the
following questions:

What is the ‘place’ of domestic flower gardens in Polynesia?

In what ways does the movement of people into and out of Polynesia
affect domestic and commercial flower gardens?

In what ways are flower gardens gendered?

In what ways do flower gardens contribute to the recreation of
Pacific places and identities?

These questions open up another dimension to the
population mobility-environment nexus. Stimulated by these questions, the
research that follows shows the intellectual potency of interrogating
domestic sites and taken-for-granted activities among the highly mobile
Polynesian populations. Surprises and contradictions resonate through the
work reported here thereby fueling further inquiries into the population
mobility-environment nexus in the Pacific.

References

Anae, Melani, 1998: Fofoa I Voa Ese: the identity
journeys of New Zealand-born Samoans, unpublished PhD thesis in
Anthropology, University of Auckland.

Fairbairn-Dunlop, Peggy, 1993: Women and agriculture in
Western Samoa, in J.H. Momsen and V. Kinnaird (eds), Different places,
different voices: gender and development in Africa, Asia and Latin
America, Routledge, London, 221-223.

MacIntyre, Martha, 1989: Better homes and gardens, in M.
Jolly and M. MacIntyre (eds) Family and gender in the Pacific: domestic
contradictions and the colonial impact, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 156-169.

Macpherson, Cluny, 1997: The Polynesia diaspora: new
communities and new questions, in Kenichi Sudo and Shuji Yoshida (eds)
Contemporary migration in Oceania: diaspora and networks, the Japan
Center for Area Studies, JCAS Symposium Series No. 3, Osaka, 77-100.